Digital Storytelling

     It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was basking in the October sunshine in Dallas and listening in disbelief on the phone as my wife described Chicagoland’s first pre-Halloween snowfall in who knows how long. I was at the ISMF celebration of student work then and managed a few blog posts. I also promised to tip you off to the call for submissions. Consider yourselves tipped. They will be accepting entries from February 15th until May 31st, 2007. Apparently, the guidelines are still under review so you may not want to rush your submission in right away. There is a $20 entrance fee for each entry, $5 for a single photograph.
     There are nine different production types from still photographs to posters to videos that are further defined by “purpose” which is another six categories that range from instructional to entertainment. Not sure where your work might fit in? They have a clever little wizard that will walk you through several question screens and then let you know. You can also buy a two DVD set of last year’s judges’ favorites to get an idea of what the level of competition is like.
      And that brings me to the judging. One of the things I was most impressed with (besides all the student film makers in attendance and their work) was the award system that included “best of festival” and “judges’ favorite.” They really seem to go out of their way to honor and encourage students’ creativity.
     Actually, I was so impressed with everything about the festival that I may have to drag myself out to Anaheim at the end of October to duck any possible pre-Halloween Chicago snow while watching for your students’ work.

     There’s nothing more exciting in digital storytelling than sharing. Whether it’s kindergartners or senior citizens, stories are made to be told and heard. It’s in our genes. ISMF recognizes that and, popcorn provided, set aside three rooms on Wednesday evening to screen any of the 900+ entries. Yes, I said any! Attendees’ work was given preference, but after that you could shout out a title from the list of entries that struck you and up it went on the screen. I hope the students that didn’t make the trip to Dallas got to hear the laughter, oohs, ahs, and applause at sometime somewhere. Rooms were divided by grade level and media presentations ranged from video to Flash animations to stop action filming to photo essays to web pages to sequential and interactive stills. Many of the youngest fans didn’t want to quit watching and held on until they couldn’t hold their eyelids up any longer. Just to point out a couple of the entries that really struck me, I saw a network worthy PSA (Public Service Announcement) explaining the restructuring of Hawaii’s department of education, a photo essay that was all reflections (puddles, windows, bumpers, and a few mirrors), and a hilarious crayon sketched story of one young girl’s family’s bad luck with pets. Thursday morning saw us taking over the main ballroom from the Association for Educational Communications and Technology who is the sponsor/parent organization and holds their annual (international and mostly college/university focused) conference at the same time. In the grand ballroom and on the main stage was a perfect place for the awards and closing ceremonies. A clown awarding stickers for hugs, a singing cowboy/emcee, photo ops, awards, door prizes, and sun glasses that came in our conference bags all made it an Oscar-worthy way to end the week. Over the next few months I will keep returning to ISMF themes and will beat the drum mightily to encourage students to enter next spring when the ‘07 festival opens up and the cycle starts all over again. Wouldn’t you like be in Anaheim next fall to celebrate students’ media creativity?

Pictures by Johanna Riddle

     We often shortcut music and photography by exercising our fair use rights to borrow other’s work, but tools are readily available to allow students to create their own. The artistic payback is definitely worth the investment of time.
     M-Audio led a workshop on GarageBand and supplied music keyboards for all the
stations in the lab. Our presenter explained that what once filled a home studio now can fit in a backpack in the form of a laptop computer and a MIDI keyboard. There was something for everyone in this workshop as the keyboard players were able to play their own tunes, choosing various instruments to carry the notes generated by their keyboard. And the not so tickling the ivory inclined were able to combine loops to get some melody, a beat, and a little bass. Not to leave out the PC users, M-Audio offers a product called Session. It is available as a stand alone product or bundled with some of their devices.
     Eli Reed, a professional photographer who has worked for magazines like "Life" and "People," been the production photographer for a number of Hollywood movies, and
does work for Magnum Photos, showed us dozens of his pictures from the poorest of the poor to Hollywood stars. What came through loud and clear in Eli’s speech and photos was his love and respect for mankind and the indomitable human spirit. Pressed to offer advice on what makes a great photograph, he said that he likes to convey more than just the moment. He attempts to show something of the past and a hint of what the future might be. It seems for him that photography really does focus vision and expand point of view. Inspired by that ethic, one his university students rerouted his drive back to school in Texas last fall to both document hurricane Katrina and lend a hand to those in need.
     Encourage your students to make their own music, take their own photos and use their own artwork.

In the Enthusiasm and Fun Category

Almost half an hour after the afternoon sessions had ended I wandered down to meet some friends at the room the iMovie workshop was being held in. I thought the closed door meant that I had missed them. But when I peeked in, almost all the stations were still occupied and the student producers were busy finishing and sharing their movies on the San Diego Zoo. Nobody seemed to notice or care that the "bell had rung" a while ago.

Pictures by Johanna Riddle

     I’m sitting in the back of the Continental Room at ISMF with a few other adults watching about 40 students share sixteen computers running Adobe’s Premiere Elements. To give you an idea of the tenor of these workshops, when our very capable presenter hit a little snag importing, a student quickly volunteered the remedy. Premiere and its more affordable but almost as powerful little brother, Premiere Elements, is an intuitive and easy to use video editing program. At $119 for the combined Adobe Elements education package of Premiere and PhotoShop, it’s a must have for any PC media center. Even if you are not a Premiere or PhotoShop user, you will find a lot of good examples of what can be done and how to do it at the Adobe Digital Kids Club site. With election season closing in on us, you might give the tutorial on election ads a good looking over. Highlights of this program include a number of video and audio tracks as well as the ability to do a green screen/chromakey effect which can put students anywhere in the world or universe by laying one video on top of another.